National administrative agencies in transition: A comparison of sweden and the united states

The abilities of national administrative agencies in Sweden and the United States to function effectively are influenced by their responses to three major phenomena: 1) growth in the responsibilities of government; 2) decentralization; and, 3) privatization. This paper delineates how these phenomena have affected the development of national administrative organizations in these two countries. Implications for administering national agencies in increasingly complex interorganizational environments are discussed.     

Is the USSR dead? Experience from the financial and economic crisis of 2008–2009

The paper examines the economic linkages between the post-Soviet states from the point of view of the financial and economic crisis of 2008–2009. It aims to find out whether the interdependence between the countries of the former Soviet Union is still large enough that crises in individual countries affect the economic development in the neighboring states, and assesses the impact of the crisis itself on the linkages between the former Soviet republics. The evidence is mixed: while some channels of interdependence deteriorated over the last decade, others became more important, and some were even strengthened by the crisis itself.     

The Four Pillars of Russia’s Power Narrative

The Winter Olympic Games in Sochi and the annexation of Crimea were two major international events in which Russia engaged in early 2014. In spite of all the divergence in the logic underpinning each of them, four concepts strongly resonate in both cases. First, in hosting the Olympics and in appropriating Crimea, Russia was motivated by solidifying its sovereignty as the key concept in its foreign and domestic policies. Second, the scenarios for both Sochi and Crimea were grounded in the idea of strengthening Russia as a political community through mechanisms of domestic consolidation (Sochi) and opposition to unfriendly external forces (the crisis in Ukraine). Third, Sochi and Crimea unveiled two different facets of the logic of normalisation aimed at proving – albeit by different means – Russia’s great power status. Fourth, one of the major drivers of Russian policy in both cases were security concerns in Russia’s southern flanks, though domestic security was also an important part of the agenda.     

‘From weird to wired’: MPs,the internet and representative politics in the UK

On 14 May 2002, the House of Commons voted on proposals put forward by the Modernisation Select Committee for reform of the departmental select committee system. This article examines the origins of those proposals, and the outcome of the vote, focusing on one particular proposal to create a Committee of Nomination to place MPs onto select committees. This raises questions regarding two competing academic approaches to explaining parliamentary reform, the ‘attitudinal’ approach and the ‘contextual’ approach, and concludes that, of the two, the ‘contextual’ approach is better placed to explain the failure to create a Committee of Nomination.     

Fatal Case of a 27‐Year‐Old Male After Taking Iboga in Withdrawal Treatment: GC‐MS/MS Determination of Ibogaine and Ibogamine in Iboga Roots and Postmortem Biological Material

We report the case of a man who died twelve hours after ingesting powdered iboga root, commonly taken for its stimulant and hallucinogenic properties. Ibogaine and ibogamine were quantified in the powder ingested and the victim's body fluids by GC‐MS/MS after liquid–liquid extraction (Toxi‐tubes A^®). The concentrations of ibogaine measured in the blood samples taken at the scene and in the peripheral blood, urine, and gastric fluid samples taken during the autopsy were 0.65, 1.27, 1.7, and 53.5 μg/mL, while the iboga content in the powder was 7.2%. Moreover, systematic toxicological analyses of biological samples showed the presence of diazepam and methadone in therapeutic concentrations. Death was attributed to the ingestion of a substantial quantity of iboga in the context of simultaneous methadone and diazepam consumption.     

Improving Nonmetric Sex Classification for Hispanic Individuals

Current techniques used by forensic anthropologists for the identification of unknown human skeletal remains have largely been created using U.S. Black and White samples. When applied to Hispanics, these techniques perform poorly and can lead to misclassifications; consequently, there is an imperative need for population‐specific standards for Hispanics. This research examines the classification accuracies obtained by the original Walker (Am J Phys Anthropol, 136, 2008) and Klales et al. (Am J Phys Anthropol, 149, 2012) methods for nonmetric sex estimation and provides recalibrated regression equations specifically for Hispanics. Ordinal data were collected for five skull and three pelvic traits from a sample of 54 modern Hispanic individuals. Recalibration of the Klales et al. equation improved accuracy (90.3% vs. 94.1%), while recalibration of the Walker method equation decreased accuracy (81.5% vs. 74.1%), but greatly improved sex bias (22.2% vs. ?7.4%), thereby making the recalibrated equations more appropriate for use with Hispanics.     

Macroscopic characteristics of screwdriver trauma

The main objective of the study was to determine the type of macroscopic trauma created by a flat-tipped and a cross-tipped screwdriver. The second objective was to determine if the trauma inflicted by the two screwdrivers could be macroscopically differentiated. Three tests were conducted, each by a male volunteer. Each test consisted of 12 samples of fleshed pig ribs; six were stabbed with a flat-tipped screwdriver and the remaining six with a cross-tipped screwdriver (Phillips). Each sample received 15 stab wounds during the process. The stabbings were conducted at perpendicular and oblique angles, with fabric variables being utilized. Results illustrate two main categories of macroscopic skeletal trauma, fractures, and puncture wounds. By studying the macroscopic appearance in tandem with differing trauma frequencies, these two screwdriver types can be differentiated.     

The recovery of illicit drugs from oral fluid sampling devices

Testing for drugs in oral fluid is a convenient procedure for determining recent drug use. A number of issues are still to be resolved and this paper investigates the effects of storage systems on drug stability and recovery using three different collection devices supplied by Cozart, Immunalysis and Microgenics (third party). Drugs were analysed using a range of immunoassay systems followed by MS confirmation and quantitation. The reproducibility of the weight of specimen collected was excellent (CV<10%) for the three collection devices tested. Of the three systems studied, only the Cozart product gave acceptable recovery of THC from drug-spiked oral fluid. A combination of Cozart, Immunalysis and Diagnostix immunoassays with the Cozart collection system gave the most sensitive and discriminating screening assays for the drugs studied, namely THC, benzodiazepines, methamphetamine and morphine. Storage at either 5 degrees C or room temperature had no significant effect on drug recoveries.     

The Historical Basis for the Understanding of a State in Modern Russia: A Case Study Based on Analysis of Components in the Concept of a State,Established Between the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique - Using semiotic and historical methods, the article recovers the ancient Russian concept of...